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Sunday, April 16, 2017

I’m not much in to demonology; I only remember a couple names
of demonic entities off the top of my head, like Beelzebub, Belial, and
Astaroth, but I had only heard about the demon Byleth in reference to the
Italian horror film Byleth – The Demon
of Incest (1972), and with the title to go off of, I pretty much thought of
Byleth as some sort of ghastly, incest inducing demon. I tried to look in to it
a little, but other than this film, I found very little relating Byleth to
incest. The connection of the theme of incest to Byleth in this film is perhaps
more in reference to the belief that the demonically possessed display sexually
deviant behavior.

As far as lore goes, the demon Byleth (sometimes spelled Beleth
or Bilet) is a monarch of Hell and a fallen angel. He rides a pale horse and
commands eighty-five legions of demons. The sounds of trumpets and melodies
precedes his presence when he is conjured. His pale horse suggests he could
possibly be one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Death.

When summoned, Byleth
will test the courage and worthiness of the conjuror by appearing most
intimidating, frightful, and extremely pissed off, and if they are too
inexperienced and unprepared, the ritual will likely result in the conjuror’s
death (although it’s said that Byleth can be softened with a bottle of wine). If
through all manner of advanced esoteric ritual, they manage to subdue Byleth,
he reveals his true form, which is supposed to be that of a beautiful young
girl who has the power to make someone fall in love, kind of like a love genie.